Rumours of Thunder Chapter 10
by Mintaka14
In the wake of the battle, Kira stared at the string of missed calls from her mother.
Students and teachers were starting to emerge from the school and pick their way through the carnage of property damage. There was the noise of people talking, exclaiming, shouting, but Kira ignored it all and quickly played the first message. Second message… third message… Her mother's recorded voice was getting more and more strained.
"Kira, what's wrong?" Dr O was saying, and it felt as though his voice was coming from a long way away. "Kira?"
She started as his hand touched her arm.
"My dad's in the hospital," she said distantly. "He was hurt in the downtown attack, I don't know how badly, but Mom said he's in emergency."
She was barely aware of Dr O guiding her towards his jeep, or the trip to the hospital, and she had very little idea of how they got there until Dr O was shepherding her through the hospital corridors of scrubbed white walls that had the sharp smell of disinfectant and messed with her sense of direction.
Kira was vaguely aware of Dr O stopping to ask something at the desk. Her eyes blindly followed a nurse in blue scrubs pushing a wheelchair briskly down the hall, until Dr O's hand on her arm drew her down more of the twisting maze, past glimpses of hospital beds through half-open doors and the sound of restless patients and the soft blip of machines. He stopped her, and reached past to open the door of the room her father had been moved to.
Kira froze in the doorway, chilled by how still her father was in the hospital bed. Machines beeped quietly, and she took a reluctant step forward.
"Oh god," she whispered. "I should have been there."
Behind her, she could feel Dr O's hand on her back, warm and comforting.
"You're doing everything you can, Kira," he said, his voice a little hoarse. "This isn't your fault. This is Mesogog. We can't be everywhere."
Kira reached out hesitantly to touch her father's hand lying on the white sheet and thin blanket covering him. It scared her a little how perfectly smooth the blankets were; there was no movement in the bed to disturb them.
"What is the point of being a Ranger if we can't even protect the people we care about?" she asked bitterly. Underneath her hand, her father's fingers twitched.
There was a faint breath, "Kira…"
Kira stared desperately at her father's face, looking for any more signs of consciousness, but he was gone again, his breathing shallow.
"We do what we can," Dr O said softly, and his hand was still on her back as if he was trying to will strength into her. "We do everything we can to take down the bad guys and protect everyone. That's why we try so hard to not escalate the fights until the monsters force us to, because when the giant monsters show up and the Megazords come into play it's not just the Rangers and the evil minions getting thrown around anymore – neighbourhoods get destroyed and people get hurt."
"Then we need to take down Mesogog," Kira said savagely, "before anyone else gets hurt."
"We're working hard to make that happen. Hayley's doing everything she can to build what we need to stop him, and we'll be ready when she does."
"Will we?" Kira turned to Dr O, fighting to not cry, when a sound at the door made her look around.
"Kira?" Her mom was standing in the doorway with a cup of coffee, and Dr O's hand dropped from Kira's shoulder. She missed the warmth.
"Your mom's here now," he said quietly. "I should get back to school, check on things there. Will you be okay?"
Kira nodded reluctantly, and Dr O turned to her mother, offering her a hand to shake.
"Mrs Ford, I'm Tommy Oliver. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help, and I hope your husband has a fast recovery."
Kira's mother murmured something in response, and waited until he had left before she looked at her daughter.
"Kira, who was that?" she asked distrustfully. "Is he the reason you've been missing curfew and sneaking out of the house?"
Kira stared at her mother in dismay. "God, Mom! No! Dr O is one of my teachers. I was at school when I got your messages, and he offered to bring me here. He was just being nice."
"He looks far too young to be a teacher," her mom said sceptically.
"He's a brilliant palaeontologist, and we're lucky to have him at Reefside," Kira argued passionately. "Science class doesn't actually suck this year, and if I don't fail the final exams it'll be because of Dr O." Her mother didn't look as if she quite believed her, and Kira felt a stab of hurt. Was this what it had come to between them?
"Mom, what happened with Dad?" Kira asked, trying to deflect the argument.
Her mother drew a deep breath and let it out, looking down at the cup in her hands as if she'd forgotten it was there.
"There was a monster attack downtown, and your father's offices were evacuated, but he was one of the last ones out and he got hit. Your dad's been unconscious since they brought him here. He's stable for now, but the doctor can't tell when or if he's going to come out of it. It was a head injury."
Her mother's mouth tightened with pain, and she looked over at the still figure in the bed.
"One of the Power Rangers was there, but he didn't even stay to see if everyone was okay," she said bitterly.
Kira swallowed, and her voice cracked a little as she said, "He had to leave! Our school was under attack."
In the hospital light, it looked like her mother's face turned grey at that news, and Kira felt guilty for dumping it on her.
"Three attacks in one day. It's getting worse," her mother breathed. "It feels like Reefside just isn't safe anymore, even with the Rangers around. What's going to happen to us all if something happens to the Rangers, or if they leave us?"
"They won't!" Kira protested. "The Rangers would never just leave Reefside. They're doing everything they possibly can."
"But what if that isn't enough?"
And that was Kira's constant fear. No matter how laughable those creatures seemed, with their cartoonish mash of features and silly voices, they were dangerous. People got hurt, and now one of Mesogog's creatures had put Kira's father in hospital.
Mesogog was getting worse. Dr O and Hayley were convinced that the evil mutant monster was preparing for something big, and Kira was growing more scared by the day that they wouldn't be able to stop him.
It was hard, going to school the next day knowing that her father was still lying in his hospital bed with little change in his condition. And everywhere she turned she seemed to run into either Cheryl or her friends. Why couldn't the universe cut her a break?
A knot of them were huddling around the lockers, blocking her path. For one brief moment, Kira's footsteps faltered, then she gripped her book bag tighter and made herself move forwards.
As she drew closer, Kira could hear them talking.
One of Cheryl's minions was saying, "The Yellow Ranger saved you? Oh my god, Cheryl! That's amazing!"
"Yeah, not amazing enough to save my car, though," Cheryl sniped. "Have you seen it? It's got a monster footprint right on the hood! That bitch at the insurance company says I'm not covered for monster damage, and my dad's refusing to get me a new car."
All Kira could see for a moment was the image of her father lying in that hospital bed, one of Mesogog's victims, while she'd been busy saving Cheryl's ungrateful ass. Dimly, she could feel her fingernails bite into her palm. Then one of the girls noticed Kira and nudged Cheryl, whose smile turned vicious. Cheryl whispered something back to her friend, and they both laughed.
Kira turned on her heel and walked away before she could humiliate herself by crying in front of those bitches.